David Zucker
Una Pallottola Spuntata

THE REVIEW

There are films that make you reflect, that make you dream, that make you cry, films that do all these things together and films, like this one, that make you laugh (but really a lot).

"The Naked Gun" represents the pinnacle of the genre and stands miles ahead of its subsequent "colleagues" (Scary Movie, Hot Shots, etc.) precisely because of its "refinement," where refinement means that taste for the absurd completely absent in recent similar productions, which seem rather like a vacuous and often not even funny mishmash of parodies of current blockbusters.

What makes this film shine is the surreal atmosphere that hovers from beginning to end: the nonsensical exchanges between the characters (nurse: "Miss Nordberg, we will probably be able to save your husband's arm. Where would you like it sent?"), the absurd situations that follow each other at a frantic pace, and the film's very silliness make this motion picture truly irresistible.

Such a brilliant screenplay is then rendered incredibly on screen by a decidedly exceptional cast, where each actor portrays their character in an incredible way: Leslie Nielsen gives the impression of being a concentrate of idiocy even in real life, but even the other actors deserve an award just for managing to say and do what they said and did without bursting into laughter...

What can I say then? Pure and at the same time wholesome comedy (which is NOT represented by the fart jokes of Boldi and De Sica, recently so re-evaluated) at its best is found here: a film that is, I repeat, a masterpiece and that everyone should do themselves the favor of watching at least once in their life.